Double Vision
by The Wind Sings Also
Summary: The stresses of living a double life are finally catching up with the young Lelouch Lamperouge. When Lelouch gets sick and is admitted to the hospital, Zero, as a result, appears to have abandoned the Black Rebellion. But when Lelouch crafts the miraculous return of Zero too quickly, his risky actions result in a slip of his identity and a near loss of a crucial battle.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I do not own Code Geass, nor any of the characters.

* * *

Living a double life was finally proving too much for the young Lelouch vi Brittania, 11th prince of the Holy Britannian Empire; the masked leader Zero of the Black Rebellion; and vice president of the Ashford Academy student council. This morning, despite feeling feverish and light-headed, he found within himself the strength to push himself out of bed and get ready for school. He'd already been in trouble with his teachers and principals for missing more days class than he had dared to count.

Throughout the school day, the malaise wore on, causing him to fall asleep in nearly every class. During his fifth period, Art History, he felt a sharp poke in his side. With a grunt, he looked up to see Shirley smiling at him. "Come on now, Lelou," she whispered. "Before Ms. Rainier goes off on you again." With a weary smile, Lelouch straightened his back. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kallen Statfeld, a member of the Black Rebellion, drifting off to sleep against the palm of her hand. As he smirked, a wave of nausea ran through him and, hunched over, he clutched at his abdomen.

"Lelou, are you alright?" Shirley's green eyes were wide with concern.

"Shirley," he choked out. "I've got to go. Cover for me, will you?"

Lelouch just made it to the restroom before getting violently ill. _This is what I deserve, I suppose,_ he thought, silently berating himself as he bowed on the filthy ground. _I can plan irrefutable strategies all I want, but there's no tricking my body._ Rising to his feet, he swayed a little and stumbled to the sink. In the mirror, his face looked pale and his eyes sunken. He just hoped he could make it home in time to get a few hours of sleep before the Black Rebellion meeting later that night.

Dead on his feet, he walked through the halls with slow and clumsy feet. The afternoon bell rang, dismissing students from their classes. The hallways filled, and just as he had almost made it to the exit door, a firm hand gripped his shoulder.

"Excuse me, Earth to Lelouch. Where do you think you're going? You think you can walk right past me, your dutiful student council president, and not even say hello or even _attempt_ to make up an excuse for why you've missed the last two meetings in a row?" When he turned his head, he saw standing before him, Ms. Millie Ashford, proud and dignified, blond hair flipped over her shoulder for effect.

"Millie, I-"

"No, sir. I'm not accepting any excuses this time. We have a festival to plan, our biggest yet, and _you're_ the budget supervisor." With that, the girl grabbed his hand and began to pull him out the door to the student council building. Lelouch sighed. Sleep, it seemed, was to be a pipe dream at best.

At the student council meeting, he slumped into the chair beside Shirley. "Lelou!" she exclaimed. "Are you feeling better? I told Ms. Rainier you weren't feeling well. You looked paler than a sheet when you left class."'

Forcing a smile, Lelouch sat up. "I'm fine," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "Just tired, that's all. I took a nap in the library for a bit."

Shirley's eyes narrowed in disbelief, but she nodded, turning her attention to Millie who stood at the head of the table donning an expectant expression. The girl then proceeded to talk logistics for her grand event, the Ashford Festival, where they planned to make the world's biggest pizza. The costs, he recognized as the budget advisor, were absurd. But given Millie's family wealth, he knew this was of little consequence to her in exchange for a good show. Lelouch tried to listen as she rattled off rapid strings of sentences in her high-pitched voice, but he found his eyelids threatening to slip over his eyes. His entire body felt weak. Crossing his arms tightly, he tried to hide the slight trembling of his fingers and limbs.

After about ten minutes, when he was just about to drool into the palm he had pressed against his face, Millie called on him. "Lelouch," she said sternly. "Have you been writing all this down? Do you have a proposal for our budget breakdown, like I asked for last week?"

"Forgive me, Millie. I don't have it yet, but I promise I'll get it to you by-"

"Mr. Lamperouge," she interrupted, using her best condescending tone. "It's unlike you to slack off on your responsibilities, but your lack of reliability is grinding on my nerves. If you can't step it up, I might have to replace you as Vice President."

Ordinarily, Lelouch would have felt badly for letting his friends down. Breaking promises was not something he enjoyed doing, but his trembling had grown worse, and his vision was beginning to cloud as his lightheadedness worsened.

Millie paused her diatribe. "Lelou, are you alright? I wouldn't think it possible, but you look paler than usual." Now all of his friends had turned their scrutiny on him, their eyes wide with concern. Shirley, Kallen, Suzaku, Rivalz, even Nina seemed to be paying attention.

Beside him, Shirley placed the back of her hand to his forehead lightly. "Lelou, you're burning up," she said with a gasp. "You should go see the school nurse."

Lelouch withdrew from her touch. There were few things he detested more than pity. With bravado, he managed a laugh. "I appreciate the concern, friends, but I'm fine." On shaking legs, he stood from his chair, carefully gripping the table. "I haven't been sleeping well, but I'll be much better once I go home and get some rest."

With that, he made his way to the door. In his feverish haze, he had to focus intently just to put each foot in front of the other. "Millie, I'll have the report to you by Wed-" As he spoke, his head began to spin and his legs and arms went numb. He stumbled to the doorframe and clung to it to hold himself up. The last thing he saw before he collapsed was Suzaku jumping from his chair to run toward him.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I do not own Code Geass, nor any of the characters.

* * *

"Lelouch!" Suzaku shouted as he lunged toward his friend. He'd noticed as the boy's legs began to buckle, his eyes flitting across the room before they rolled into the back of his head. Working from quick reflexes, he threw himself in front of Lelouch, so the boy's body simply slumped forward onto him, rather than hitting the floor. Carefully, then, he lowered him to the ground, where he lay splayed across his lap. By this time, both Shirley and Kallen had joined Suzaku at his side.

"Lelou!" "Lelouch." Their responses varied; one hysterical, and the other no louder than a concerned murmur.

"Here-can you two help me flip him over, so he's on his back? Millie, I need you to call an ambulance." For once in her life, the confident student council president looked flustered. She had been a friend of Lelouch's since he and very young Nunnally arrived on her grandfather's front porch with nothing but their royal names. The Ashford family had kept them hidden, safe as students at his private academy. Once she regained herself, Millie pulled out her pink cellphone and began dialing for help.

"Hello," she said. "Yes, one of my friends just collapsed."

"No, he hasn't yet regained consciousness."

"No medical problems that I'm aware of."

"We're at Ashford Academy, the Student Council Center."

"Thank you."

Lelouch now lay on his back, his head still in Suzaku's lap. Millie was right- his pallor was far paler than usual, and despite the heat radiating from his body and beads of sweat on his forehead, he was shivering. Suzaku placed two fingers on his neck and found them met with a rapid pulse. His breathing, too, seemed labored, shallow.

"What's wrong with him?" Shirley asked, gazing down at the boy's sleeping face.

"I think he's just sick with a virus or something. Knowing Lelouch, he's probably had it for a while and never got it checked out." Suzaku sighed. "For now, let's get this overcoat off him. I know he's shivering, but his body temperature feels off the charts."

As the three of them worked to get the black Britannian student uniform off their friend, he didn't so much as budge, his body lolling with their every motion. Though he didn't tell the girls, this worried Suzaku. He'd expected the boy to wake up within a few seconds. If he didn't stir soon, the root cause could be something worse than he anticipated.

He balled up the overcoat and set it under his friend's head for a pillow, moving out from under him to assess the damage further. "Alright, Lelouch," he murmured, lightly striking the boy's cheeks. "Can you hear me? We need you to wake up." Still, the boy didn't so much as murmur or groan. Now, the black tank top he wore betrayed even more clearly the shallow heaving of his chest.

"Gosh, Lelou. Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Shirley had balled her hands into fists and was pounding them lightly on the wood floor next to her unconscious friend. "Never caring enough to look out for yourself; making the rest of us worry all the time." Despite her harsh words, there were tears forming in her eyes.

In the distance, the teens could hear ambulance sirens growing closer and closer. Suzaku lifted Lelouch's eyelids up one by one, each time revealing a dull, unseeing violet iris. His pupils weren't dilated, so there didn't seem to be any head injuries keeping him under this long. _What's the matter with you, Lelouch?_ Suzaku wondered, idly clutching his best friend's limp hand.

Soon enough, the sirens were blaring right outside the building. The teens sat in silence as footsteps thundered up the stairs down the hall. Shirley and Kallen both moved back as the paramedics swooped into the room beside Lelouch; Suzaku, however, remained right where he was, answering their many questions.

"Name?" a thin black-haired woman asked, as she knelt down beside Lelouch, checking his vitals.

Suzaku hesitated, before saying, "Lelouch Lamperouge." Millie shot him a questioning glare, and he hoped that this information wouldn't create trouble for the exiled prince and princess.

"How long has he been like this?" she asked.

"About five minutes." Kallen and Shirley nodded.

"Alright, we're going to take him to Tokyo General. Would one of you like to come along?" As she asked, she was also helping lift Lelouch's body onto a gurney. The other paramedic, a young man, slung an oxygen mask across his face.

Suzaku looked back at Shirley, nodding to give her permission to go. The girl stood up. "Yes, I'll go with him." The other teens simply watched as their two friends, one strapped to a gurney, left the room.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Lelouch," Kallen murmured, as the elevator moved toward the first floor of the Hospital. While the other student council members sat in the waiting room, she had been forced to leave early, before her friend awoke. They'd all seemed disappointed when she told them she had to go. None of them knew about her membership with the Black Rebellion, so they simply thought she was being a bad friend.

Kallen was a few minutes late to the meeting, after pulling on her sleek Black Rebellion pilot's outfit in the bathroom, and letting her hair spike out, so she looked less like a schoolgirl and more like a soldier ready for battle. Panting, she swung open the door to the Black Rebellion's headquarters, a decked out trailer in the garage of an abandoned warehouse, only to find her colleagues all sitting on the couch, still twiddling their thumbs.

With narrowed eyes, she strut across the room and took her place next to Ohgi on the couch. "Where's-"

"Zero?" Tamaki interrupted. "No friggin clue. I think the dude flaked on us."

"Have you heard anything from Zero, Kallen?" Ohgi asked. "We've all tried calling, but there's no answer."

"He's probably just running late," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "You guys are always looking for excuses to distrust him, I swear." After a few more minutes of waiting, however, Kallen could feel the rebels patience wearing thin. With an exasperated sigh, she pulled out her cellphone. "Fine, I'll try calling him."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** I do not own Code Geass, nor any of the characters.

* * *

In Room 224 of the Tokyo General Hospital, one particular patient's cell phone was ringing off the hook. "Popular kid, huh?" his nurse asked the young woman sitting in the chair beside his bed, trying to make her smile.

The smile was fake. "Yeah, the ladies all love Lelou," she murmured, holding back her jealousy at the thought of other women getting ahold of the boy. _Though it's probably just Nunnally_. _Poor thing must be worried sick, especially after hearing all those sirens.  
_

"I don't blame them. He's a cute boy." The nurse giggled as Shirley blushed.

It had been three hours since the student council meeting, and Lelouch still hadn't woke up. The doctors still weren't entirely sure what was wrong with their friend. A few different men, all wearing long white coats, had come in and out of the room with puzzled expressions. "So you say he doesn't get much sleep?" one of them had asked her. "He's probably just exhausted. Shut down his immune system. I wouldn't worry too much." They seemed to be in general consensus that he had a virus, but not what kind or of what severity. "We'll just keep him overnight to make sure he gets stabilized," the nurse had said.

Lelouch lay still in the bed, now donning a white hospital gown that made him look all the paler. An IV was hooked into his left arm, while all sorts of electrodes had been placed on his forehead and beneath the neck of his gown, monitoring his brain and heart activity. The oxygen mask strapped to him covered most of his narrow face. _Oh, Lelou,_ she thought to herself as she surveyed the sleeping boy. _Please wake up soon. Please be okay._

* * *

After another 10 minutes of waiting, the Black Rebels left headquarters in an angry buzz. There was nothing Kallen could do to convince them otherwise. _Zero,_ she thought to herself as she walked home slowly. _I hope you have a good reason for this._

She pulled out her phone and texted Millie, "How's he doing?"

"Still nothing," came the reply. "Will keep you posted."

Satisfied with this answer, Kallen stumbled out of her uniform and fell face first into her bed, where she slept soundly for the next 10 hours.

When she awoke, a few things drifted through her mind hazily. Quickly, she sat up and pulled out her phone, eager for one of two things: an update on Lelouch's condition, and any missed calls from Zero. She only found one of these things, a text from Millie reading, "He's awake now. Just as obstinate as ever. They'll be keeping him tomorrow too if you want to visit."

With a smile, Kallen jumped out of bed and pulled on her school uniform, imagining the poor nurses tasked with keeping Lelouch Lamperouge in bed all day against his will.

* * *

And a task it was indeed. Lelouch sat propped up against pillows in his hospital bed, arms across his chest like a glowering child. As Zero, he could bend entire armies to his will, but here, as Lelouch, he could do nothing but wait. His Geass, of course, would provide him with an opportunity, but he didn't want to waste it on any of his friends, or even his nurse, until the situation demanded it. He always tried to keep logic firmly separated from emotions, and right now, he recognized that most of his anger stemmed from helplessness, exhaustion, and boredom.

He'd awoken late the night before, groggy and confused with Shirley at his side. He couldn't talk due to the massive oxygen mask strapped to his face, and Shirley hovered over him, saying something like, "Lelou! You're awake. We've all been so worried."

Though his body protested, he forced himself to sit up with shaking limbs.

"Be careful," Shirley said sternly, wrapping an arm around his shoulders for support. "You need to take it easy for a while."

His arm trembled as he removed the oxygen mask from his face. The girl helped him get it over his head, eyes darting back and forth to look out for nurses. "What happened?" Lelouch asked, fighting back a cough.

Shirley's eyes were watering with concern and pity. He hated that. "Oh, Lelou. You collapsed during our student council meeting and we couldn't wake you.."

Lelouch's eyes narrowed as memories came rushing back to him. Leaving Art History to get sick in the school bathroom; his vision blurring before his eyes as he listened to Millie talk logistics. He'd been hoping to go home and nap before the Black Rebellion-

"Shirley! What time is it?" he asked, sitting up even straighter in his bed.

The girl looked down at her watch. "It's 9:00pm," she said. "Why?"

Moaning in self-hatred, Lelouch slumped back into his pillows, bringing a trembling hand to his forehead. "No reason," he murmured. "Just missed something that was important to me."

Shirley's eyes narrowed this time. _Great,_ he berated himself further. _Now she thinks I had a date planned and is upset, though I suppose it's better than her knowing the truth._ The girl's expression softened. "How are you feeling, Lelou?"

Lelouch had to think about his answer. He still felt weak, certainly, but nowhere near as bad as he had felt during the student council meeting. His throat was sore from the cold stream of oxygen, and his stomach felt empty, uneasy. "I feel better," he murmured. "I just need to get out of here. Can you help me with that, Shirley?" He looked up at her and mustered his best helpless expression, knowing it was his only defense.

The girl put her hands on her hips. "Mr. Lamperouge. There is no way I'm helping you leave this hospital bed without permission from your doctor. Do you hear me?"

Lelouch sighed.

"We've been waiting by your side for almost six hours now. Don't you think that the least you can do for us is get yourself healthy, so we don't have to go through this again?"

Lelouch pouted.

"We were really worried about you, you know. Seeing you unconscious like that- I was-" Shirley trailed off, and gingerly rubbed her own arm, trying to keep tears from falling from her eyes.

"Don't worry, Shirley," he said, extending an arm to comfort the girl. "I'm not going anywhere." As the girl smiled, he leaned back into his pillows and allowed himself to sink back into sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** I do not own Code Geass, nor any of its characters.

* * *

The next time Lelouch awoke, it was Nunnally who sat by his bedside. "Big brother?" she asked, turning her head as she heard him stir.

"Nunnally?" he asked, his deep voice hoarse. "How long have you been here, silly girl?"

"Oh brother," she murmured, wheeling closer to his bed, searching for his hand with her own. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. I accidentally dropped my cellphone in class, so Millie couldn't get ahold of me until this morning. I was so worried when you didn't come home. If I had known, I would have been here-"

"Hey there," Lelouch interrupted, clutching her tiny hand tightly. "Nothing to feel guilty about. I'm still in one piece."

"Thankfully," she said, then frowning, continued. "Brother, you need to stop staying out so late and get more sleep, so you don't get sick like this. I can feel your heartbeat. It's too fast, and your hands, they're cold and clammy."

Seeing his sister frown, Lelouch felt guilty. "Alright, Nunnally. I'll do my best to get more sleep. I'm sorry to have worried you." Nunnally paused, and he knew she wanted to ask where he had been spending all of his late nights, but she pursed her lips, and kept quiet. "How are you feeling, brother?"

"Much better," he said.

"Don't lie to me, Lelouch."

Lelouch sighed, placing his other hand to his forehead. "It's not a lie. I do feel better. Just a little dizzy."

The young girl frowned again. "Well I told them to absolutely not let you leave here until they were sure you were okay."

"Nunnally-"

"Don't 'Nunnally' me, Lelouch. I know how you are. You're my brother, and if anything were to happen to you, I'd lose everything we've fought so hard to maintain."

Lelouch sighed. Despite her gentle nature, his sister had certainly inherited the same manipulative streak as his. She knew exactly what to say to get him to listen to her. "Yes, Nunnally," he consented, leaning back into bed.

"That's what I like to hear. Now, you have some friends that would like to see you. Is it okay if I invite them in?"

Lelouch grinned. "Of course. I would hate to keep them waiting any longer." Soon enough, Millie, Shirley, Rivalz, Suzaku, and Kallen filed into the small room.

Millie, leading the pack, was smiling, a hand on her hip. "About time, VP. You've been sleeping on the job, it seems." Lelouch let out a light chuckle, and groaned, a deep pain filling his stomach. For a moment, Millie's lighthearted facade broke, and she frowned slightly.

Suzaku walked over to his bed wordlessly and placed a hand on his shoulder. "How are you feeling, Lelouch?"

"I'm much better, thanks. I'm only sorry to have worried everyone." On this, his eyes met Kallen's for too long, and they both averted their gaze, blushing. "But, really, you all look tired, yourselves. You should go home and get some rest."

"You don't have to worry about us, you know?" Suzaku said. "Lelouch, how long had you been sick before this happened?'

Lelouch sighed; he had been hoping to change the course of the conversation. "I'm not sure-a few days. Why?"

The boy crossed his arms and frowned. "You need to take better care of yourself, that's why. It's not normal to be so exhausted that you pass out for almost six hours." Suzaku wasn't going to let him get off easy, that was for sure.

The boy slouched further into his bed and pouted. "Listen-"

"Cut your bickering, you two," Nunnally said, moving her wheelchair in the small space between Suzaku and the hospital bed. "I've lectured my brother enough. Let's all just be glad he's OK."

After a few moments of tense silence, with the boys simmering, Shirley spoke up. "At least this is an absence Ms. Rainier can't get mad at you for, right Lelou?"

Lelouch gave a small smile. "I'm sure she'll find a way. Just like Suzaku here, she always does." At this, he felt a sharp poke in his side, and he looked up to see his best friend smirking, his elbow drawn back.

"Really though, Lelouch, we're glad you're OK." This time, it was Kallen who spoke up, her expression as serious as ever. "But don't you ever scare us like that again." Lelouch laughed to himself dryly, _With friends like these, it's easy to forget I was abandoned by my parents._

"I won't, Kallen. Promise."

As the pain in his stomach worsened, Lelouch laid his head back against the pillows, trying to appear tired. More than anything, he didn't want to get sick in front of them.

"Alright, friends," Shirley said, picking up Lelouch's cue easily. "I think we should let him rest for a while."

"Oh, we wouldn't _dare_ interfere with his beauty sleep, would we, gang?" Millie added with a smirk, ushering the other student council members out. "Feel better, Lelouch!"

"You guys go home! Don't worry about me!" he tried to shout after them, but his hoarse voice betrayed him and he began coughing. The coughing, however, only worsened the building pain in his stomach. A sudden warmness took over him and he broke out in sweat. Anxiously glancing around, he saw a black button with the words "NURSE" over it in bright red letters. Pressing the button, he leaned back and clutched his stomach, grinding his teeth to dull the pain.

He heard the nurse's footsteps, but didn't think he had the strength to look over without vomiting. "Excuse me, I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to be-"

"Don't worry," a calm, but familiar voice lilted. Lelouch nearly jumped when the nurse wrapped an arm around him, placing her cool palm on his forearm before pushing his body upward. With the other hand, she pulled the wool blanket laying across his legs off and folded the railing down, so he could get out of the bed. Astonished at both the woman's clairvoyance and forwardness, he turned his head barely to look at her and the first thing he noticed was her green hair, pulled into a tight bun behind her head.

"C2?" he mumbled, letting the woman help him out of bed and toward the restroom in the corner. "What are you doing here?" The woman said nothing, but with her hand around his waist, supporting half of his weight, they made their way into the tiny tiled room. Within seconds, Lelouch was on the ground, retching violently.

When all was said and done, he sat there for a moment, forehead pressed to the cool porcelain and let himself catch his breath. His chest still heaved, his body trembling with exertion. It felt like the world was spinning, until he felt careful fingers stroking his hair tenderly, anchoring him to the ground.

"Why are you here, C2?" he grumbled angrily, despite his weak state. "It's dangerous for you to be here."

"How else was I to get ahold of you? You weren't answering your phone. You missed your meeting with the Black Rebels." Her remarks were direct, unapologetic, as usual. "What happened to you?"

Lelouch sighed. "I'm sick or something. Passed out at a student council meeting, and they took me here." He gave a frustrated sigh. "We're three days away from the greatest uprising of the century. The timing couldn't have been better."

"There will be other days. I don't see any point in continuing with the ambush if you're not certain we can win."

"The ambush will go on," he seethed through gritted teeth, pushing down the nausea that threatened to make him sick again. "I'll be out of here tomorrow, one way or another. But first, I need something from you." This time, he smiled, in a way that made C2 narrow her eyes.


End file.
